harry potter and the stop sign
by bicie
Summary: evil mind readers...snapes special cookies...exploding cucumbers....curious yet?


"What ARE you two doing?" Hermione prodded watching her two friends hastily shape the foil that lay before them on the table into large, pointed contraptions. "Honestly, there are more important things you could be doing." 

"This isn't important?" Ron asked, angrily. 

"It depends...what are you making?" 

"Foil hats." answered Harry. He held his up and began inspecting it from every angle. 

"Honestly, Halloween isn't for another couple months!" 

"Hermione, these are to protect our minds from evil mind readers." 

"Evil mind readers?" 

"Yes, like Draco Malfoy." 

"No!" Hermione looked shocked. 

"Yes." Harry shoved a newspaper in her direction, the heading shouted "_Draco Malfoy, discovered last night to be an evil mind reader which means he can read your mind unless you're not thinking about anything or unless you are wearing a foil hat. Mr. Malfoy currently attends __Hogwarts__School__ of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is taking students by the dozens under his power, details on page 203." _

Hermione sunk down into a large overstuffed easy chair across the room from Harry and Ron whose foil folding skills weren't very good at all and sighed. "All this time, he's been able to read my mind!" she said angrily before glancing at Ron. 

"'S 'alright Hermione," Ron said gleefully. "I made one for you as well." 

* * * 

That night at dinner, their foil hats caused a huge ruckus. 

"I HATE CUCUMBERS!" yelled Fred Weasley when the trio walked into the dining room. He threw the large, green vegetable at George who screamed. 

"No! I'm allergic!" Percy, being the peacemaker he is, grabbed the cucumber and set it down on his plate. "Now boys," he scolded, "It is not polite to throw cucumbers at one another." 

"Sorry Percy," the twins answered in unison, both grinning devilishly. 

Meanwhile our three heroes had seated themselves at the end of the Gryffindor table, which was the table they sat at for dinner because they were all Gryffindors because that was where the Sorting Hat, which is a hat that sorts you into separate houses in the school called Hogwarts that they attended, had placed them. 

"Is it just me, or do my ears seem bigger today?" asked Ron glancing at his reflection in a large silver salad bowl that was being passed in front of him. 

"Here, this is a special ear shrinking potion that I carry around for emergencies just like this," said Hermione handing him a small bottle, but before he could drink it, there was a loud explosion followed by a burst of laughter from the Weasley twins. 

Percy Weasley stood up and as best as he could manage, he brushed the cucumber mush off of his robes. "Rule number 1,752 states it is not polite to bewitch cucumbers so that they explode onto a prefect," Percy explained. 

"It says it's not polite, but it never said we couldn't do it," shouted Fred Weasley. 

"Hey Harry," said Ron, "This reminds me of that time we flew my dad's magical car!" 

"That doesn't happen till next year Ron." 

"Oh, right, I always forget." 

Suddenly, Draco Malfoy, the devilish little git that he was, seated himself beside Hermione, she quickly put her foil hat on, and so did Ron and Harry. 

Draco looked stunned, but then smiled. "I see you've discovered my little secret," he said. Then he turned to Hermione. "And perhaps I have just discovered one of yours! You see, my dear little friends, your minds can only be protected from me by Reynolds aluminum foil. I believe that is the generic stuff." He laughed and then left the three to themselves. 

"Generic, Harry? I told you to buy the good stuff."

"Oh sorry, I thought you wanted me to get mini carrots." 

"A mistake anyone could make," said Ron forgivingly. 

"How are we going to stop the evil mind reader?" 

Hermione interrupted. "Hey Ron, you have an idea." A light bulb appeared over Ron's head.

Suddenly, "Excuse me but would any of the three of you like to try Snape's special cookies?" a stranger had appeared in mid air and now held a plate of cookies out to them. 

"Snape, you say? No thank you," said Harry disgustedly. 

"But they're made with tender love and care." 

"Well, then, we'll take 3 dozen! Tender loving care, who knew?" Ron reached for the platter and as he did, the stranger disappeared. 

"Weird," said Harry. 

"Follow me," said Ron. 

"What about dinner?" said Hermione. 

They found themselves outside on the vacant field where Quidditch games were held. 

"Now what?" asked Harry. 

"Look," Ron disappeared behind the bleachers and reappeared with a giant red sign. 

"A stop sign!" said Harry happily. "That will get him for sure!" 

"Wait a second, Harry." Ron sniffed the air cautiously. "I smell cheese," he said quietly. 

Harry looked around nervously. "That can only mean one thing," he said just as an evil laugh echoed into the stadium. "Draco Malfoy," growled Harry. 

"Harry Potter," growled Malfoy. 

"Ron Weasley," growled Ron. 

"Ron!" said Hermione. 

Suddenly, Harry sprang into action and grabbed the stop sign from Ron. He held it up to Draco, who shrank backwards and screamed, "NOOOOOO!!" He grasped his head in agony and fell to his knees. "I-can't- read-minds-any-more," he groaned. 

"What are you doing?" a loud and all too familiar voice shouted at them from the edge of the field. Professor Snape was rushing toward an angry scowl on his face. 

"We were just stopping Draco from reading our minds and discovering that Hermione has a secret crush on Ron," explained Harry, as Snape reached them. "We tasted your cookies, by the way. Delicious, they were." 

Snape's eyes filled with tears and his bottom lip began to tremble. "You-you-you liked m-my cookies?" he choked. Then he wrapped his arms around an unsuspecting Harry. "Harry Potter, I always knew I liked you!" He sobbed. 

Finally, after he gained his composure, he turned on Malfoy, who was still on the ground whimpering. "Draco!" he shouted, grabbing the blond haired boy by the ear and pulling him to his feet. "Come with me!" 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione laughed as Snape dragged Malfoy off the Quidditch pitch, and back toward the school. 

"Where did you get the stop sign, anyway?" asked Harry. 

"It's not a stop sign!" explained Ron. "It's a pizza! Come, have a look." 

The trio sat down beside the box and began to eat. Then Hermione remembered something that had been bugging her since Harry had mentioned to Snape that they were trying to keep Draco from discovering that Hermione had a secret crush on Ron. 

"Harry! Can you read minds?" 

"Only one," he answered smiling at her. "Yes, Hermione. I know all your secrets."


End file.
